Bahrain complains to Iran over name switch with Syria

Bahrain has demanded an apology from Iran after its name was substituted for
Syria in a state television translation of a speech by Egypt’s president
that backed the rebellion against Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi Photo: AP

By Robert Tait

3:35PM BST 02 Sep 2012

In Thursday’s address to the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran, Mohammed Morsi embarrassed his Iranian hosts by saying Mr Assad, Iran’s close ally, had lost his legitimacy and comparing the forces fighting him to the Palestinians.

“The Palestinian and Syrian people are fighting for freedom, justice and dignity,” he said.

But in the simultaneous Farsi translation provided for the live transmission by Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, the word Syrian was replaced by Bahraini. The mistranslation reflected Tehran’s sympathy for Mr Assad and for a mainly Shia-led rebellion last year against Bahrain’s ruling Sunni monarchy, which was suppressed in a brutal crackdown aided by Saudi Arabia.

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Ezzatollah Zarghami, the head of IRIB, acknowledged one “shortcoming” in translation but insisted there were no other errors.

However, the Iranian website, Tabnak, cited additional inaccuracies, including the omission of the word Syria from other parts of Mr Morsi’s address and altering the meaning to make it appear that he favoured Mr Assad’s political survival. His use of the term “Arab Spring” was replaced by the Iranian regime’s preferred term, “Islamic Awakening”.

Mr Morsi, an Islamist elected in June, was the first Egyptian leader to visit Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials initially hailed his appearance as heralding a strategic realignment in the Middle East. But his speech was fiercely criticised by regime insiders and the conference’s final protocol made no reference to Syria.